


I spy with my little eye

by Sternenstaub



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Assassins, First Meeting, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Spies & Secret Agents, nobody gets hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29756385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sternenstaub/pseuds/Sternenstaub
Summary: Letho gets hired to kill a bard. His target is a strange fellow who won't shut up.
Relationships: Jaskier | Dandelion & Letho z Gulety | Letho of Gulet, Jaskier | Dandelion/Letho z Gulety | Letho of Gulet
Comments: 16
Kudos: 46
Collections: The Witcher Quick Fic #7





	I spy with my little eye

It was a rather straightforward contract. Infiltrate the castle, kill the spy and vanish again like smoke at night. Nothing Letho hadn't done a hundred times already. The guy he was contracted for had probably gotten some military secrets in his hands or maybe even turned one of the emperor's spies against him. In the end it wouldn't matter, all his information would die with him. 

A witcher was usually not the person people hired for spionage, especially not one as big and burly as Letho was, but he had learned early that people often ignored him, thought him a big brute without a brain and underestimated him severely. 

And he knew how to use that. 

Even with all his witcher characteristics, he was at most the hired muscle, dumb and brutal in people´s eyes, no need to whisper or hide secrets, when he likely couldn´t even read. The emperor had noticed his skills as well. And paid much better than most villages would for monsters 

People were afraid of him and he played with it, with his appearance and shown characteristics. They kept their distance but thought him slow, mentally and bodily, and became careless until he could strike like the viper that he was. 

His school was known for their silent assassinations. A hundred percent deadly with guaranteed money back if the victim survived long enough to tell anyone who hired the vipers to kill them. Nobody had ever blabbed on Letho and tonight wouldn't be the first time.

The witcher climbed up the mortar wall like he was part of it, his black armor melting with the night, the fog wafting through the air helping him hide. Even the weather was on his side, Letho thought with a grin, hanging four meters above the ground on just his left hand and one foot perched in a crack. Tonight would be a breeze and easy money. 

The contractor, some minor noble serving the emperor, had specified his target to be small and rather waifish, brown hair, blue eyes, a bard who sneaked into corners and rooms he was not supposed to be in, who opened people's legs just so he could open their drawers when they were asleep. If he hadn't been contracted for him, Letho might have admired that man's skill. He himself hadn't exactly the dispositions to use his charms. It was something he admired in people. 

The sliver of a thought that maybe he was lonely and wished to be charmed was thrown away as effectively as the small pebble just falling down after loosening from the wall. 

A small part of him wondered what kind of information the guy could have possibly gotten his hands on to require an assassin of his calibre to be necessary. Surely a bard who gathered intel by sleeping around could be easily disposed of by any mercenary, no witcher needed, and at most got juicy details about nobles. Letho wasn't exactly a cheap option and nobody hired him because someone's spouse slept around. 

But asking questions wasn't part of the job, as curious as he naturally was. 

He had finally reached the window the bard was supposed to sleep in. Like a shadow he climbed onto the windowsill, perched on the narrow edge like a much smaller man than he was. The latch of the window opened easily with the help of a small dagger and Letho slithered into the room without a sound. The fog wafted in behind him, blurring his features even more. 

He smirked, teeth glinting for a second in the moonlight before another cloud put the world into darkness once more. This was the part of the job where his witcher senses truly helped him. Despite the darkness he could see well enough, eyes blown wide to circles that took in the last scraps of light no human could ever use, and his ears picked up the smallest rustles. His heart hammered evenly in his chest, badump, badump, badump, get your job done, be good at it, don't make them suffer. 

Someone was sleeping in the bed, a lute stood at the side and a frilly outfit was folded neatly on a chair. He had found the bard. Letho sneaked closer, dagger ready to cut the man's jugular. The contractor had specified to cut the bard's throat. Make some kind of poetic punishment for someone whose voice was his life, Letho didn't ask. 

He stood next to the bed, listening to even breaths, dagger ready, when Letho noticed the breaths were too even. Eyes that barely could register light looked at him, maybe they were bright blue at day. 

"I'd be much obliged if you didn't cut my throat." the man said, startling the witcher more than he'd ever admit. "I'm sure I've not slept with anyone's spouse recently, or anyone really, it feels rather unfair to die for something that wasn't even fun, don't you think?" 

Normally Letho's targets were asleep, or didn't notice the poison working their way through their bodies before it was too late. A conversation wasn't something he expected on a job, that was for sure. So he did the most stupid thing, something his teacher would have had his hide for, he answered the question, too astounded not to. Who was this man starting a conversation while a man with a dagger threatened his life? 

"Wouldn't a bit of fear fit you better now, bard? Or, I don't know, shouting for help?" It was not what Letho wanted, but what he expected. The bard sat up instead, eyeing Letho warily but making no mad dash for his weapons or any such thing. 

"Oh, I learned early that you can talk yourself out of most problems, my stabby friend. And those you can't? My abysmal fighting skills wouldn't help as well." The man looked at Letho for a second but the witcher doubted human eyes could see much. 

„So, what exactly am I going to die for? As you can see, I don't have much more longer to live, what with you right in front of me, so would you grant my last request?“ 

Letho was speechless for a moment, this guy took dying and his immediate demise like others `s handled their rose garden. He was so surprised, he actually answered. What was the point not to? He wasn't in a hurry and this guy clearly wouldn't scream, he was rather sure of that, and he intrigued the witcher who had seen everything in his long life but not a person like this.

„I`m not asking questions, just fulfilling my contract. Answers are not what lies on the path.“

„A witcher!“ the bard exclaimed, and it wasn’t in the usual horror stricken voice or disgust Letho had come to expect, no, it was delighted. Why was this man not afraid?

„I had suspected as much, what with these pretty shining eyes of yours in the darkness. But to think they`d set a witcher after me, I`m flattered, honestly. Cat or Viper? Griffins and wolves don`t take contracts on humans, if I recall correctly. I`m so curious how your training differs for those reasons.“

Was this man really trying to have an academic conversation about the differences in witcher schools while an assassin stood in front of him, dagger in his hand? And why did he even know these things? Most people didn`t bother telling witcher schools apart.

The bard looked at Letho, waiting for an answer. Apparently, yes, he was going to have this conversation. 

When Letho didn't answer, the man sat up fully and inched to the side of his bed, deliberately slowly and not even close to anything that looked like a weapon. He gestured to a candle next to him, „Would you mind lighting that candle with those nifty magic of yours? I`d like to write my friend a letter before I die.“ That was a request Letho could understand, something many people would have probably liked to do and who was he to deny it. He still puzzled over the bard's knowledge on witchers and total lack of fear for them, if not of Letho himself. The man talked and acted unaffected but he did smell nervous and his heart beat slightly faster than usual. Still, the act was good and brave. Letho admired braveness. So he lit the candle with a flick of his finger.

The man, brown hair, sleep tussled, broad shoulders and some chest hair peeking through the nightgown he wore, blinked a few times before looking at Letho. 

„Well, aren't you a big one. What did they feed you at that school of yours? Or is that a you thing? I still don`t know which school you are.“ The man watched him with intelligent blue eyes, searching carefully targeted around his neck, clearly looking for his Medaillon until his eyes widened just a fraction. „A viper,“ he whispered, „I have yet to meet one of yours.“

„Know many Witcher’s, bard?“ Letho scoffed, slowly getting tired of this farce. The longer he stood here the harder it would be to get out unseen again. The night was waning and the fog wouldn't veil him in the sun.

„Actually, yes. Quite a few. The friend I'm writing to is one as well. Geralt of Rivia, you might have heard of him. My songs about him are rather well known.“

Letho stopped short, he had heard of him, even worked with Geralt on the odd job and still owed the man a rather big favor. And this was the bard tagging alongside him. Shit. 

Letho growled from deep within his chest, a sound that made most men blanch and take a step back, the bard just looked at him with a curious expression and a fond smile. "All witchers do that, huh?" 

When Letho moved his dagger, the bard's eyes widened for a moment until he looked even more shocked when Letho sheathed it and took a step back.

„I don't work against other Witchers who I owe a favor to. Their friends included.“ he explained to the shocked bard, who looked less tense by the second.

„Much obliged my friend. I`ll be sure to mention to Geralt not to count on that favor at another time.“ Letho didn't answer, just rolled his eyes at this strange fellow and turned towards the window. „If you so much as breathe a word about this, I _will_ find you.“ he threatened before jumping onto the windowsill, vanishing into the fog and night like he had come.

Bard. Spy. Witcher friend. Letho wondered what else this man was. Maybe their paths would cross again.

**Author's Note:**

> While writing this I realized the whole story would need much more chapters and time, so here we are now for quick fic purposes. Hopefully I'll manage to write the actual romance later.


End file.
